Are Parents Monitoring Social Media of their Child

I have seen umpteen times parents showing electronic devices liked tablet or mobile phones are used to pacify a toddler. The challenge is when they get addicted, are parents monitoring social media of their kids?

According to a report in JAMA Pediatrics, too much screen time for toddlers aged between 24 – 36 months is actually detrimental for their development milestone between 36 months – 60 months. Development milestones include communication skills, behavior and social interactions of the toddler.

How to reduce screen time for toddlers

In order to reduce screen time for toddlers, you as a parent plays a key role to act as a disciplinarian to set a guideline for them. You can also look at spending quality time with them through outdoor activities or games that do not require an electronic device.

There are many ways to pacify a toddler and normally you only need more patience and time. Using electronic devices is a shortcut to solve the problem instantly, but it opens up a can of worms in the future development of your toddler.

Screen time and its consequences

Screen time is the number of hours that your toddler are using electronic devices like TV, tablets or mobile phones for entertainment purpose. Not all screen is bad for toddlers as it will depend on the quality of the programme or activity shown.

However, for every minute on screen, the toddler lost the chance to walk, talk or build interacting skills through communication. There are some other negative effects that may occur with too much screen time

Obesity

Watching too much TV or playing games on the same spot may cause obesity issues. These activities are less healthy compared to outdoor physical activities as they encourage physical inactivity. It is time to engage your child with more physical activity sports liked basketball or soccer if you notice they are putting on more weight.

Lack of quality sleep

It is common for your toddler to use media devices before sleep. According to sleep.org, devices liked computer, mobile phone, tablets and TV can affect your toddler sleep.  The blue light emitted reduce the production of melatonin which makes it tougher to go to sleep or maintain asleep. There are also report that link disorders like ADHD with sleep. (Source)

Violence

Excessive violent exposure on social channels, Tv programmes music or games may have negative influences on the kids. They may think that violence can be used to resolve problems. We have to closely monitor the actions of our kids for violent behaviours and manage them before it goes out of control.

What Parents Should Know about Social Media

As you can see from above, we can see the typical media usage for a toddler between 3-4 years old. Tv sets and tablets dominate device usage but there is a trend of decreasing usage of TV sets.

The trend is shifting towards increasing usage of tablets for online entertainment like watching TV or OTT services. Online streaming services liked Netflix and Amazon prime videos are also getting most popular compared to traditional tv programmes.

Youtube is becoming a platform of choice for toddlers video entertainment. They provide access to cartoons, funny videos or pranks freely.   Videos like toys reviews from vloggers are also very popular among toddlers between 3-4 years old.

The Modern pacifier

Using tablets or mobile devices is a modern pacifier to entertain your child while you go about doing your household tasks. You will also be tempted to use it when you are outside and the child is throwing tantrums.

The situation became worst as you get affected by onlookers and strangers looking at the big scene your child is creating. The effect can be more stressful if you have more than one child.

Parents monitoring social media

As a mum, I always face the dilemma when setting the boundaries of social media activities of my children. I would love to expose them to more usage of technology but I am also wary of the harmful effects of it. Parents monitoring social media of their kids may not be that simple.

A recent study was conducted by the American Academy of Paediatrics on the impact of social media on children and families. (Source) Findings of the study suggested that while actual benefits do exist for children when they make use of social media, it comes with their own set of disadvantages as well.

For instance, it has made it easy to have access to information and being able to develop a sense of self by utilising social media channels. However, too much usage of social media may affect the face to face interaction of the child.

It may also cause them to be more exposed to cases like cyberbullying which may affect their emotional development state at a young age.

Should parents be held accountable for their children’s social media

There are no right or wrong as different parents may choose to use electronic devices for different purposes. However, the caregiver or parents that are taking care of the kid have to take most responsibilities of setting healthy media habits.  Some may argue that they want to expose their kids at a young age so they can be more tech-savvy in the future.

Some may only let kids below 5 years old to have access only under strict supervision. However, there are some dangers of too much media exposure for young kids.  

Most parents do mention that their young toddler can survive without technology in a day without any issues. However, this report shows that 58% would suffer from some sort of withdrawal symptoms or throw a tantrum. (Source)

How do I manage my child’s Social Media

There is no quick fix for this if your toddler is already addicted to their electronic devices. When our son is around 3 years old, he was being fetched by a nanny from school for a few hours before we fetch him home. At this period of time, he was being exposed to a huge amount of social media entertainment like youtube through media devices without much control from the nanny.

When we stop engaging the nanny services, we notice that he is regularly demanding for the tablet or mobile phone on every evening. He will throw a tantrum when it is not given to them.

We did 3 things to manage his addiction.

Temporary restricting access to electronic devices

We made a deliberate attempt to hide all mobile devices or tablet that my son use to view youtube videos. Of course, we have to bear with him throwing tantrum and crying for up to 10-20 minutes.

Introducing alternatives

We introduce alternatives like doing outdoor activities like playing ball, scooters or riding bicycles. (Check out our buying guide in getting a suitable scooter for your child).

If at home, we encourage them to do self-reading to build confidence and communication skills This is very important as we always neglect the quality time spent with our kids which are what they need. Switch off your phone or tablet when with them to stay focus and ensure they have your full attention.

Find a balance

We set new rules for him when watching videos or tv programmes on tv set or mobile devices. There will be a timing agreed(normally 10 mins) agreed by both parties before we let him watch. A timer will be used and stop his media activity once the buzzer goes off.

Teaching Social Media Responsibilities

Parents play an important role in teaching social media responsibilities to their kids. There are many potential negative influences that will affect your kids and it is important to teach them the right values. Here are 7 tips you can do so that your kid will not fall prey to the dangers of social media.

Internet safety

Even though you may feel that at 3-4 years it may be too young for them to understand this, communication is still needed to let them understand the risks of the internet.  Hence, we spend time communicating with our kids about the content they consume online. We also try to limit the content we show to them that we feel are not beneficial to them.

Talk to them about the dangers of the internet. They need to be aware of what is out there and how to keep themselves safe. Create a relationship with them which makes them feel that they can have good communication with you regarding anything and stick to your promise of helping them out.

Appropriate age for social media

Make sure that your child is 13 years of age or older before he signs up for Facebook. While this is the age limit set by the site, there is no way it can actually prove whether or not a user is actually above the age limit. That is why as a parent, it is your duty to ensure your child doesn’t join the site till he is above the age limit.

Privacy Settings

Make sure that appropriate privacy settings are in place.  This should apply not only to the social media websites which are being used by the browsers itself. Depending on which browser you are using, ensure that the right settings have been activated. This will make sure your child’s internet browsing session is safe and secure.

Filtering Software

Make use of a filtering/monitoring software.  There are a number of such software’s available through which you can keep track of the websites your child has visited, duration and even what keys were typed. Such information can help you understand what your child does while making use of the internet.

Setting Rules and time limit

If your child is old enough to be using the computer on his own, he should also be aware that rules exist and that they should be followed. Make sure to enforce these rules and be strict about your child following them.

If he/she doesn’t, feel free to take away their privileges until they understand the importance of rules. Make sure that your child has a set amount of time for which they can use the internet. This would prevent them from being too addicted to the usage of the internet.

Location of the computer at home

If everyone shares the same computer at home, make sure it is in a central location. This is helpful as it prevents any sort of suspicious behaviour from taking place. And will also ensure that your child doesn’t visit inappropriate websites or anything of the sort as everything would be out in the open.

Social Media Audit

Children like to post pictures of themselves online and share it with their friends. If your child is doing so, make sure you are aware of the kind of pictures and content he/she is sharing. Make sure it is appropriate prior to it being published on social media

Set a good example

Children tend to follow the behaviour of their parents a lot of times. Checking your emails, social media or texting while during mealtimes or driving are bad examples for your child.  Chances are they will behave similarly so you have to fix your habits as well.

A final tip on Parents Monitoring Social Media

We understand that the role of a parent is 24 hours without medical leave and benefits. Our kid’s energy is abundant but we are not. It is always tempting to use the modern pacifier as a get it fix fast solution to settle their tantrums.

However, you have to take into consideration the long term bad effects that may have unknowingly being brought into their lives at a very young age.

As long as we are self-aware and manage their exposure to technology, we should be able to reduce the harmful effects in the long run. You may also be keen on Grandparents undermining parents and Best 3 Wheel Scooter for 5 year old